


Rescue

by 30Love



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: AU, Almost Lovers become actual lovers, Alternate Events, F/M, Gore, Multiple Points of View
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-29
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-04-28 17:35:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5099588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/30Love/pseuds/30Love
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A re-imagining of the prologue events of Until Dawn. Sam follows Hannah and Beth and manages to get them up from the cliff with the help of the stranger. But what will she do against the Makkapitew? And how will Josh react to finding his sisters and Sam missing? Will they make it out alive? Eventual SamxJosh, but this is more plot-driven, than romance-driven.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Indecision

Indecision. He could see the emotion flicker across her eyes like the pulse on a heart rate monitor and hers had to be going a mile a minute. He was reaching down for her, desperate for the girl to realize he didn’t mean her or her companion (probably a sister from the looks of it) any harm. 

The two girls hung precariously off of a cliff: one clutching at the fine ends of a tree root with one hand and frantically trying to keep ahold of her sister with the other.

Pain quickly joined that indecision, and he soon found out why. Night was upon them, but even with the cover of darkness, he could see the deep sulcus that ran along the upper girl’s acromion of her left arm which kept them both alive – he knew it to be dislocated. The combined weight of herself and her sister having doubled the tension force her shoulder was meant to absorb in the short fall… It was no wonder.

She looked down at her sister, then back up to his hand, then back down at her sister – it worried him.

Just before he was going yell out and reach down to grab her wrist (and, he assumed, just before the girl was about to make whatever decision had been going through her head), a swift motion to his left almost knocked him off balance in fear. He thought it was a…

But it was just another girl.

“Oh, God. Beth! Hannah!” She shrieked dropping down to her knees to get closer. “Don’t worry. I’ll help you.” She called down the cliff.

“Thank fuck! Sam!” He heard the girl with the hat call up from below.

“Hey, you!” The blonde directed toward the man, “Help me get them up!”

He shook his head to clear his thoughts – grateful but a little worried about _what_ she may have attracted to follow her here. Righting himself, he resumed his position with one arm dangling off of the cliff-face, reaching for one of the girls’ arms. He watched as the blonde girl next to him grabbed for the girl at the bottom of the chain – the one with glasses. She looked fairly comfortable on the cliff, her balance appearing excellent as she leveraged herself off of the edge as far as she could so that she could get to her friend.

He heard screeching in the distance. And it was getting closer. He started to sweat. But this situation couldn’t be rushed.

When the blonde made contact and appeared to have the suspended girl securely in her grasp, he felt the other sister grab onto his hand. He, as gently as he could (which he imagined wasn't much), helped hoist her up onto the surface. Back on firm ground, the girl could finally take note of the damage to her arm and cringed as the mass hung limply from her shoulder and blood began rushing back into it. She gingerly cradled the limb to her body, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes, but refused to let them fall. Nervously, she watched her friend handle her sister's rescue, clearly bothered by the fact that she couldn't help.

Seeing this, he went to help the blonde bring the other sister up, but took a step back when she flung her body weight backwards in one smooth movement, successfully bringing her friend up. Albeit, it seemed the sister with the glasses was not so graceful as she tripped a bit and landed with a hard thud into the blonde, who managed to get knocked down into the snow. 

The girls all laughed as the tension started to disperse.

A loud screech, much closer to their location, ruined the moment almost instantly.

He ran for the flamethrower he discarded previously when he went to help out and donned it quickly; he hefted it onto his shoulders and aimed the nozzle at the forest.

“Stay back, girls!” He barked. “And whatever you do, DON’T MOVE!”

Skittering in the trees alerted them that many animals were escaping the vicinity in an innate knowledge that something fearsome was coming. 

The blonde girl stood in front of the sisters, her knees bent and legs apart, a good stance for protection and reaction. One of the girls, the one with the hat, placed the shaking hand of her uninjured arm on the blonde’s shoulder. Was it to steady her friend? Or herself?

He chided himself. This was not the time for such thoughts.

His eyes scanned the tree-line, searching for any signs of movement.


	2. Crying

Crying. He was certain that was the sound which woke him up. Blearily, Josh brought his face up off of the counter-top; he could feel the sting of blood rushing into the area after being deprived for some period of time. His hand came up to rub at his cheek and wipe away the sleep from his eyes.

He looked around the room, finding Chris next to him, passed out on the bar like he had just been. A chuckle left his throat, remembering the drinking contest they’d gotten into.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a note further down on the bar. He went over and read it, an eyebrow cocking in confusion at its contents. _‘Wasn’t Mike dating Emi-…?’_ His thoughts were cut off.

Whimpering alerted him to the reason he had woken up in the first place and he ran over and shook Chris’s shoulders, “Dude, wake up, bro!” He kicked his stool as he ran passed him, hoping to speed up the process after he had felt his friend stirring awake. He thudded loudly across the room as he ran toward the source of the noise.

At the front door, he found most of his friends huddled together with frightened, hollow looks on their faces, a few of them (namely Ashley and Matt) sobbing slightly as they appeared to be sitting and waiting for something. When he approached, they all looked up at him and guilt flashed through their features.

“What? What is it? What happened?” He panted, a bit out of breath due to his sleepiness and his initial panic.

They all looked at each other, as if unsure of how to tell him or whether or not they should.

Chris slowly came up behind him, still half asleep. He seemed curious as well about what was going on.

“It was…“ Ashley started. She was glancing at Chris as though she was afraid of what he would think of her. She looked down at the ground, too scared to say anything more.

“It was just a prank…” Emily finished, though not as confidently as she had earlier in the night. Mike squeezed her forearm in comfort.

“What was…?” Realization dawned on Josh’s face as he looked to Mike who couldn’t meet his gaze. “What did you do?” He began. “What the FUCK did you do?!”

Matt stepped in, his voice shaking. “It was a… bad joke… and-and Hannah stormed out. She ran out into the woods! Sam tried to stop us, but… but she didn’t make it in time. And then Beth found out. God, this is so fucked up. Beth found out and she ran after Hannah. God, it’s so cold and Hannah… she didn’t have a coat. It’s been so long.” He wrapped his arms around himself, eyes full of remorse.

Josh’s head flicked left and right, looking at the group in pure rage. That anger stuttering short as he came to another realization. “Sam…” He whispered, noting her absence from the group. “You-you said Beth was the only one to go after Hannah. Where is Sam?”

They looked at each other again, a new wave of guilt seeming to sting them simultaneously as her parting words stabbed at their collective memory.

“When Hannah and Beth didn’t come back after a couple minutes…she… she took off to go get them back herself.” Ashley hiccuped as the sadness took over again.

“And WHY are you guys STILL here?!” Josh roared. Everyone flinched. “How long have they been out there?”

Jess glanced at the clock. “Over a half an hour now,” she whispered, shaking.

Josh’s eyes went wide in fear and he started to shiver with anxiety. He felt a firm hand on his shoulder. 

It was Chris.

He looked back and saw that Chris already had his shoes and coat on and he was holding out Josh’s for him to take.

“Let’s go, bro.”

Josh took a deep breath to steady himself and grabbed the items from Chris, putting them on.

“You,” Josh pointed at Mike, “call the police and an ambulance chopper. Just in case.” He gulped, trying to avoid thinking about what ‘just in case’ might mean in this situation.

The two were halfway out the door when Josh felt a hand grab his sleeve. It was Emily.

“Take this.” She held out her coat to him. “I know Hannah didn’t have one when she left. Someone is going to need it.”

He took the object – feeling lukewarm about the gesture. He knew she was partly at fault for what happened in the first place, but he was grateful for the forethought.

Chris looked over at him. “Ready?”

Josh nodded and headed out into the woods with Chris.


	3. Dread

Dread. It was thick in the air; it filled her lungs and trickled down her throat, settling in her stomach like a lead weight. She could feel dampness on her forehead as it was licked by the cold, unrelenting wind. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched her sister’s slim fingers clutch onto Sam’s shoulder. Nothing ever seemed as strong or sturdy as Sam, but even from here, she could see the shiver course through her body.

Hannah’s glasses kept fogging up as her breaths came out in short, hot bursts. As much as she could, though, she kept her eyes darting through the trees, looking for anything coming their way. This stranger seemed very on edge, and she didn’t think that flamethrower was just for show.

She flinched as another round of ravens burst forth from the trees. 

The stranger kept tapping his index finger on the rim of the trigger to his flamethrower – a nervous tic, she guessed, but she couldn’t help but appreciate that the rest of his body wasn’t moving an inch. It was like a solid block of stone, save for that rhythmic tapping.

Moments passed and… nothing.

She came to the slow realization that the world had gone almost silent. No birds cawing, no animals traipsing through the thicket – just the hollow wind, whistling through the trees, unperturbed by the events taking place. It was almost more frightening.

‘What on earth is going on?’ She whined inwardly.

Hannah really just wanted to cry. First she was humiliated by her friends, in front of the guy she liked… by the guy she liked. She shuddered with disgust. Then she got lost in the woods without a coat in the middle of snowfall up on the mountains. She and her sister were chased by some unseen presence, almost falling off of a cliff in the process. If not for her sister and Sam… She didn’t want to think about what might have happened to her. But now, _this_? Whatever this was.

She was startled out of her thoughts when something soft brushed against her hand.

She looked down and saw that Sam had grabbed her hand. Looking back up, Hannah noticed that her vision was swimming when she tried to look at her friend. She brought her free hand up to her face and wiped the tears she found there. Sam’s reassuring face filled her vision.

She squeezed the hand in hers, trying to reciprocate the encouragement back.

Hannah’s joints began to creak and ache from tension. She had been holding her position too long, but she didn’t feel as though it was safe to move yet. Something told her to take what the stranger said very seriously. 

Don’t move.

Beth must have been feeling the pain as well, but not the fear as she watched her sister shift in place to get more comfortable.

Without warning, a pale figure burst forth from the tree-line and skittered toward them at an alarming rate. 

It paused within mere feet of the stranger.

No one could remove their gaze from the creature, least of all the women who had never laid eyes on such a…

Milky white eyes darted back and forth in their sockets, as though blind but in search for something. Its pale flesh was rotting on various parts of its body and the skin around its eyes and mouth was chapped and taut, accentuating the features there – bulging the eyes and baring the gnarled, pointed teeth. It was bare and hunched forward on hands and feet… or what looked like they at one point had been hands and feet. The body was rail thin with bony prominences forming odd and uncomfortable angles all along the creature’s frame. Its elbows were bowed outward and its knees came to rest along its ribs, crouched and ready to spring forward at any given provocation.

Hannah’s instincts told her to run, but the words of the stranger echoed in her mind. Don’t move. Don’t move. Don’t move.

An ear-shattering screech burst from the creature’s throat.

She choked down a sob.

Just as it began to wander toward them a stream of fire started to pour from the flamethrower, consuming the beast.

Hannah let out a deep sigh of relief, sure that the creature was dead…

Only to watch in horror as the pale figure jumped backward out of the blaze and onto the trunk of a tree. It screeched, long and loud, and scanned the area once more.

“Girls…” the gruff voice of the stranger beckoned their attention. His eyes never left the creature and his finger never strayed from the trigger of his flamethrower.

“You need to very slowly make your way to the forest. Stay low. It won’t be easy, but I can’t kill this thing and keep you safe at same time.”

He paused as the creature shrieked again and started down the tree trunk to the snow-covered earth.

“Go. Now. Slow, but now. As slow as you can.” He tapped on the trigger of his device, shooting a brief spout of fire to get the creature’s attention. He began to side-step and circle the area to bring the beast away from the path the girls were taking to get to the forest.

Slowly, but surely, the girls made their way to the woods as a unit. Beth never took her hand off of Sam’s shoulder and Hannah never released the hand in hers.They kept their eyes on the stranger and the creature to make sure they didn’t attract its attention.

He kept shooting flames at the creature and it would shriek in pain, but it just wouldn’t die. The stranger seemed certain he could kill it – so what was he waiting for? It jumped back out of the barrage of fire and tried to skitter around the stranger to attack him from behind. The man just spun around and let loose another inferno.

It was almost like the creature was too guarded to pierce through its defenses. As soon as the fire was on it, it would curl up like it was using its back to protect itself.

Hannah looked toward their goal. They were almost to the tree-line. A little more than halfway there. She felt a tug on her arm as she tried to continue forward, but Sam’s immobility halted her. Slowly, she looked at Sam, whose eyes were locked with the beast’s.

It was staring right at them.

Don’t move. Don’t move. Don’t move.

She felt sweat trickle down the side of her face.

The stranger caught on that he no longer had the creature’s attention and seemed ready to unleash yet another attack, when…

_Snap._

The eyes of the creature darted away from the girls to the tree-line. Hannah followed its gaze and reeled in horror at the figure that stood there.

“ _Josh_ …” She heard Sam whisper, voice filled with dread.


	4. Anxiety

Anxiety. He felt it seep into his skin and burrow into his bones. It took his breath hostage. It settled in his heart and it squeezed until he couldn’t take anymore and then it would squeeze again.

It turned his imagination into its evil plaything. Showing him things – horrible, terrifying things – that could be happening to his sisters and Sam, and he was powerless to stop it.

Josh clutched at his chest as another wave of panic gripped him.

His feet stopped dead in their tracks, too overwhelmed to continue forward.

He jumped a bit when two hands thumped him hard on his shoulders and rested resolutely there until he met the gaze of the perpetrator.

Chris was staring at him, making sure he was alright.

“Josh. Are you with me, buddy?”

A weak nod was his reply.

“We have to keep moving if we want any chance of finding them. I know you’re scared, but I’m sure they are, too. We need to get them back. Understand?”

This was not the first time Chris had to manage one of Josh’s panic attacks, but it certainly was the first time he had to deal with them in such a dire situation.

Josh took a moment to let the information sink in. If he was this scared… how scared must his sisters be? How scared must Sam be?

The thought didn’t stop his anxiety, but it did make him decide to push through it for the sake of rescuing them.

He stood up straighter and met Chris’s stare with a stronger one of his own.

Chris quirked a smile at him and patted Josh’s shoulders heartily. Josh rolled his eyes at his friend and pushed past him, taking the lead. Though the quivering of his breath never ceased.

Earlier, Chris had discovered a black glove at a fork in the path they’d been following. Josh confirmed that it was Sam’s glove and pocketed it with shaking hands. They took it as a sign from Sam to follow the direction indicated by the glove. To the right they went. Not long after that, they found Sam’s other glove at yet another fork, again beckoning them to go right. Josh took this glove, too.

A couple paces afterward, the two of them had found tracks and followed the trail. They first found one set, which led them to a small clearing where there was a flurry of footprints and a localized patch of displaced snow where it looked like someone had been crouched for a long time. After that, there was a set of two that took long strides, as if running frantically and a set next to those that were not quite as long, but the person who made them was clearly in a hurry.

They had to be getting close.

Josh stroked the pair of gloves in his pocket, seeking some sort of comfort.

The mental image of his sisters safe kept him going. The image of Sam safe… safe and in his arms… kept him sane. Not to say that Sam was more important than his sisters, but she was a _different_ kind of important.

They were approaching what appeared to be the edge of the forest. All of a sudden, a bright orange glow, the smell of burnt earth, and the roar of flames overtook Josh’s senses. He ran ahead of Chris to see what the source was and was met with a horrifying display.

Some man with a flamethrower stood off to one side, facing toward the edge of a cliff and his sisters and Sam stood off to the other. The girls were staring, terrified, at something in front of the stranger…

What he saw made him take a step back where he bumped into Chris who was standing directly behind him. Chris tumbled backward and tried to maintain his balance by bringing his foot behind him, crunching loudly down on a branch.

_Snap._

All eyes were on them, including the eyes of that hideous creature.

He heard Sam’s melodic but trembling voice, carried on the wind, whisper his name.

“ _Josh_ …”


	5. Silence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: there are some depictions of gore in this chapter (it begins with the paragraph that starts with "The stranger's spine..." and it is safe to read again starting with the paragraph "A low groan...")

Silence. It hung delicately over the area like a thin piece of lace over an open flame. One wrong move and…

Beth could feel her heart leap into her throat as she watched her brother and Chris start twisting around to look at the ground as if checking to make sure there were no other branches or twigs to step on.

The creature twitched and a rumbling gurgle started emanating from its mangled mouth. It crept slowly toward them.

A gnawing itch started to rake itself up Beth’s throat as her body begged her to scream, to warn them as realization dawned on her.

They didn’t know.

They didn’t know.

Don’t move.

She mouthed it, over and over again, desperate for them to stop moving: ‘ _Don’t move. Don’t move. Don’t fucking move_.’ But to no avail. The two weren’t looking at her, they were more concerned about not making another sound.

Fangs bared and an endless void of a mouth opened to release its shriek.

After a moment’s hesitation, the stranger jumped to block the path between the boys and the beast, his weapon already spilling out a plume of flames. He let out a harsh battle cry as he relentlessly doused the creature with his attack.

Once again, the creature ducked down to the earth, letting its back take the brunt of the blaze. But this time, it shot out one of its deformed claws through the fire and wrapped it around the stranger’s leg. It snatched the limb out from under the man and reared back taking the stranger’s body with it. With inhuman force, it cocked back its arm and catapulted it forward, hurtling the man’s body at a nearby tree.

The sheer speed at which he was flung dislodged the flamethrower from his shoulders, landing just short of the tree-line.

The stranger’s spine slammed against the trunk with a sickening crack. He was thrown with such power that his back ingrained into the tree bark and as his body slid down the tree’s surface, he took pieces of it with him. A streak of flesh, blood, and adipose trailed down the exposed sapwood and the stranger’s body finally came to rest in a heap at the old oak’s base.

A low groan morphed into a weak sigh as the stranger’s eyes dimmed.

A fierce flinch wracked through boys and with shaking legs, they attempted to back away from the creature and the stranger’s body lying barely feet from where they stood.

‘ _DON’T MOVE! FUCK, PLEASE, STOP MOVING!_ ’ Tears were streaming down Beth’s face in frustration and grief.

Their retreat only made it easier for the creature to lock onto its new targets. It slowly dropped its elbows and brought its chest closer to the ground. Rough, misshapen feet pressed hard into the cold, firm earth to increase its traction. She saw a spasm of tense musculature course through the creature’s body.

Its jaw snapped shut.

Abruptly, the creature shot forward toward the two of them, releasing the coil of tension wound tight through its frame. Its jaw sprung open and unleashed a deafening screech.

The pair were rooted where they stood, feet frozen in fear. Twinned expressions of panic arose on their faces as the notion that there was no escape flashed through their minds and sparked in their eyes.

Faster than she could scream, faster than she could realize what was happening, Beth felt the surface to which she had been clinging disappear and saw Hannah’s hand fall limply to her side.

“Hey!”

Beth stared in abject horror as the creature skidded to a halt and whirled around to the source of the call: Sam.


	6. Hey

Hey. Hey. Hey. The word echoed harshly around the mountainous landscape, a cacophony of bravado and no more options.

The creature stopped and whipped its head around toward the source of the call, its eyes darting around in their sockets trying to find it.

Sam took a tentative step to her right and, as if magnetized by her movement, the creature’s eyes snapped to her form.

She shook under the gaze of the creature, but she would not waver in her determination. She suddenly bolted away from the twins to the other side of the cliff and skidded to a halt at the edge. Quickly, she dropped to the ground, her eyes never leaving the beast, and began frantically sifting her hands through the snow until they finally found purchase on something.

The creature tore after her, head in the hunt.

Sam scanned her surroundings as she remained crouched low in the snow, trying to find a way to make the best of this situation. She didn’t have a plan when she called out; she only knew that she had to, and now she was trapped on the edge of a cliff with some kind of monster blocking her only escape and her friends seemingly frozen in place, watching her.

She saw Josh take a step forward toward her, his lips pulled back and teeth clenched like he was about to call out her name. Sam couldn’t have him make himself a target again - she cut him off.

“Run!”

At that, she ripped her hand out of the snow, a burly branch clutched firmly in her fist and she swung it at the creature’s head, connecting. It reeled back and hunched forward, stunned.

Sam’s cry seemed to bring Beth out of whatever trance she had been in. Forcefully, she grabbed her sister’s arm and began pulling her away from the cliff toward the tree-line. Toward safety. Hannah resisted with every tug, trying desperately to stay and maybe help Sam. But Beth couldn’t think about Sam in this moment. She didn’t have time to think about much of anything. This situation boiled down to a threat and the choice between her friend and her sister. It was either Sam or Hannah; and in the heat of the moment… she made her choice. A sacrifice. She shuddered. And she would be damned if she would let Hannah become another victim.

Finally, the twins made it to Josh and Chris. Chris was trying desperately to pull Josh into the forest, away from the creature and Sam. He knew what Sam was doing – could do the math. He knew there was no way they could all make it out of there without someone distracting that beast. And he had a feeling Sam knew it too.

The creature’s daze was only momentary. When it finally regained its bearings, it let out yet another of its shrieks, but it was so near Sam that it violently reverberated against her ear drums. Somewhere within her, Sam felt – more than heard – the sensation of ripping and then the whole world began to spin.

She started to wobble where she stood and clutched at her head in some desperate attempt to keep the contents inside.

The creature was upon her – that reality never escaped her notice. She knew she had to defend herself, despite the pain and dizziness. Sam feebly pulled her arm back to whack at the creature again only to have the creature swipe its claws down, knocking the branch from her hands and breaking an arm in the process.

Sam howled with pain and clutched her arm, grimacing.

Josh rushed forward, trying to get to her but Chris had his arms preemptively hooked around his chest and waist, firmly holding him back. A blistering, whining gust of wind burst over the cliff-side, drowning out Josh’s cry of “SAM!” 

It carried, hushed to a whisper to Sam and creature’s ears. But as the creature began to turn its head away, Sam called again, taunting the creature, “What? Is that all you got?”

She didn’t know where all of this bravery came from. But with each threat the creature posed to Josh, she felt the world under her feet slowly give way. She didn’t want to lose him. Not to this beast. And there she made her resolve, come what may… and she knew what the likely outcome of this would be.

“RUN!” She screamed just before the creature’s talon-like fingers gripped her throat and raised her off of the ground.

Josh tried to force himself out of Chris’s restraint, desperate to do something. He had to save her. He had to save Sam. Chris was holding him back with everything he had, gritting his teeth and feeling his muscles pull in protest.

“ _Josh. No._ ” He whispered furiously.

His words fell on deaf ears. The only thought going through Josh’s head: a constant barrage of Sam’s name. Sam. _Sam. SAM!_ He reached forward in a vain attempt to get to her.

The creature reared back its other claw and gave a decisive slash to Sam’s abdomen. Brilliant crimson stained the snow below.

Chris felt all the effort to hold Josh back disappear in an instant and watched him collapse in the snow. He looked up and saw Sam hanging limply from the creature’s grip, the light in her eyes growing darker and darker.

Bile bubbled up his esophagus and he clamped a hand around his throat to block its path. It did little good. Chris braced himself against a tree and felt the burn of acid churn around in the back of his throat before it entered his mouth where he reflexively opened it. He retched and spit. His eyes were hot with tears.

He wanted to curl up and pray to wake up. To end this nightmare. His friend. How could his friend really be…? Why didn’t he try…? How could he have let…? He let this happen. Chris knew this was real. The bitterness of the vomit on his tongue and the pain of his nails digging into the bark of the tree told him that enough. He just didn’t want to believe it.

Hannah had turned her face away into her sister’s shoulder and Beth had let her. Beth felt her sister’s tears through her sweater as they went from warm to freezing, but she didn’t care. It didn’t even register with her that the shoulder her sister was sobbing into, the one she was gripping like a vice in one hand and pounding in a fist with the other, was the one she had dislocated. The only pain she felt was the sting of the unspoken words the punches implied: Why did you run away? Why did you abandon our friend? Why did you let her die? Why? Why? Why? She just kept staring at Sam, possibly willing the blood to go back into her, possibly scarring the image into her mind.

Eventually, she managed to tear her eyes away. They landed on her brother’s fallen form and she felt her heart break even further. She reached a hand out and placed in on his shoulder.

But Josh couldn’t feel it. He couldn’t feel anything. Was this real? Was anything real? It couldn’t be real? A reality without Sam… with… out… Sam…?

“ _Sam_ …” He croaked.

Sam’s eyes had been staring intently at something a short ways off to Josh’s right, but weakly drifted over to him and a smile quirked at her lips.

“ _Josh… Josh_ …” She whispered hoarsely. Blood began filling the cracks in her chapped lips.

He watched her, his mouth opening and closing, not knowing what to say or do to help. His body was visibly trembling in horror.

“ _Shhh_ …” She cooed, a mist of red sputtering from her mouth with the sound. “ _Run_ …”

Without warning, the creature flung her to the side, close to the tree-line, but out of reach of her friends. Her body, limp like a ragdoll, landed with a heavy _thud_.

The creature slowly approached the area where she landed, methodically swiping its claws in the snow in front of itself in search of her body. Its mouth hung open and putrid saliva dripped from its chin. Pure, animalistic hunger radiated from its sightless, murky eyes.

All it had to do was find its now motionless prey. It wouldn’t be long.

Josh sunk his hands into the snow and found purchase on the hidden earth. Slowly, he pushed down through his hands and brought his body up to standing.

Beth’s hand slid from his shoulder.

Chris found himself with no energy to stop him, but grip onto the back of Josh’s coat, which Josh easily pulled out of.

The creature was so fully absorbed in getting to its prey, it didn’t even notice him getting up.

He looked like a husk of a man. There was no determination in his stance, only brokenness. He shuffled in the direction of Sam’s body, his frame swaying unsteadily as he walked. His eyes, wide and unblinking, never left her form; but even then, he wasn’t seeing her. All he saw were jade green eyes dimming and a broken smile calling his name.

There was a snapping sound behind him, followed by a gasp, but he didn’t think to look.

Josh was working on autopilot, his actions no longer controlled by reason. All reason deserted him the moment she hit the ground.

He took another unstable step toward her when the panicked voice of his sister shouted, “GET OUT OF THE WAY!”

He felt as Beth yanked his feet out from underneath him and that was all the warning he got before a bright orange fireball shot past him toward the creature, quickly engulfing it before it could reach Sam.

He looked back at the source of the blaze, shocked to see the old stranger, prone on the ground and gore exposed on his back, pointing the nozzle of the flamethrower at the creature. There was a trail of blood and tissue behind him as he had crawled from the spot he had collapsed to get to his flamethrower.

A morbid juxtaposition of death was in his eyes – his desire to kill the creature, but also his own encroaching unconsciousness. These, the last acts of a dying man.

But what about the creature…!

Josh snapped his gaze back to the wilting creature as a horrid, piercing scream was ripped from its throat. It was thoroughly caught off-guard by the attack – too engrossed in getting to its meal, too sure all threats were taken care of.

Slowly it collapsed to the ground in a contorted pile of itself; its dying scream never-ending, even as the creature stopped moving, resonating ominously through the air.

The flamethrower sputtered its completion, now out of fuel, but its purpose had ended. And so too had the stranger’s. Finally succumbing to his exhaustion, the flamethrower tumbled from his hands, and the rest of his body fell into the snow.

Suddenly, a bright, grotesque form burst from the creature’s body, howling in agony as it shot into the sky and swirled the mountain. Just as quickly as it appeared, it vanished into the earth.

All was silent.

They were so overcome with the notion that this harrowing ordeal was finally over, that one salient fact had temporarily slipped their minds.

It wasn’t until Josh rushed to stand up again, shaking off Beth and stumbling away, did they finally remember.

Snow flew in flurries behind him as he ran to Sam’s body. He dropped next to her, kicking up a small cloud of loose snow. Most of the snow surrounding Sam was red and sticky, packed tight and adherent to the ground where it started to congeal. His hands moved anxiously in the space around him, unsure of what to do first, how to help, what to avoid doing…

He settled on gently straightening out her heaped form and rolling her onto her back. From this new position, the extent of her injuries – the gruesome tale they told – became apparent. Unbidden, Josh felt hot tears begin streaming down his face.

He heard the frantic footsteps of his friend and sisters come up behind him, but he could hardly spare them a glance. And the horrified gasps he heard from them were enough to tell him that they had seen Sam.

Her body laid there, surrounded in scarlet snow.

Sam’s forearm was unmistakably broken – the skin formed divots and strains from the way it was twisted and the surface had already begun to purple. A thin trickle of blood dripped from her right ear, indicating some kind of damage – the extent of which could not be assumed. Dark, angry bruises started to appear around her delicate neck, forming the image of the creature’s vicious claws, with pinpoint cuts at the end of each one where its nails gripped her.

Josh took note of these things – these details, but her most critical injury was the one at which he just could not stop staring. The massive slash stretched across her body, from the top of her left shoulder down to her right ilium. The sinew of her musculature had been penetrated and the contents of her peritoneal cavity exposed. It was impossible to see if there was any damage to her organs through the blood pooling in her abdomen. The skin on either side of the wound was smooth and clean, showing just how sharp the creature’s talons had been.

He tore his coat off and draped it over her. Hesitantly, he pressed his palm into her abdomen through the coat, in hope of stemming some of the flow of blood, but there was just too much. It started seeping through the fabric, absorbing in his glove, and covering his hand. He felt the slick sanguine fluid slide around his fingers and decided to push more firmly.

Josh looked up to her face to apologize for possibly hurting her but felt himself lose his breath at the sight.

Sam’s face was hopelessly pale, aside from her red-stained lips and chin. The muscle tone in her face was completely slack. She looked almost serene, apart from her obvious injuries.

But serenity wasn’t what she should be feeling. With wounds like this, her face should be contorted in pain; she should be awake and screaming. Josh felt his breathing pick up and his vision was almost obscured by the white puffs of condensed breath that escaped his lips.

It was then that he came to a horrifying realization. His gaze shifted from her nose to her mouth and then to her chest, his eyes widening in fear.

“Sh-she’s not breathing,” he wheezed out.

He choked down a sob of desperation. Josh had no clue what to do next. If he tried to give her CPR, he would run the risk of exacerbating her wound, but if he didn’t…!

A low rumble could be heard in the skies surrounding them and was fast approaching.

Josh came to a decision – he had to be sure. Without thinking much beyond that, he dropped his head to her chest, his ear to her exposed skin. He could feel the tacky blood coat his cheek but he tried to keep his focus on his hearing.

That rumbling noise was getting closer and it was obscuring any possible sound from Sam’s chest.

His brows knitted together in concentration as he strained to listen for a heartbeat.

Suddenly, over the dense forest, a helicopter flew into sight. It kicked up large plumes of snow and buffeted them with the white powder. Josh tried his best to cover Sam to avoid her getting any further injuries.

The helicopter backed off enough to calm the raging winds caused by its rotary blades. Someone inside shone a spotlight on them.

Josh pressed himself closer to her and held her tightly. He listened intently for any sign of life, but the noise in the environment made it an impossible task. He didn’t want to give up on her… couldn’t.

A rough hand grabbed at his shoulder to pull him away from her and, for a moment, he resisted. The second tug was gentler and it caused him to look up at the perpetrator. It was a woman, with a sympathetic glint in her eye as she saw the state of Sam and his grief-stricken form. The woman had many badges on her thick, black uniform, two of which stood out to him. One said “V. JOHNSON” and the other was a paramedic’s insignia.

He felt tears of relief wash down his cheeks and blend with the blood that caked half of his face.

“Help her. _Please_ ,” he begged.

The woman looked toward Sam and then back at him. She gave a determined nod and gestured for another paramedic to assist her in getting Sam onto a stretcher.

He felt someone attempt to get him up and out of the way. Passively, he allowed it. Later he would come to find it was Chris who had moved him.

Josh just kept staring at Sam, only moving when his view of her was obstructed by another body. He stroked the gloves in his pocket absentmindedly.

_Please, Sam. Please._


End file.
